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Monday, April 18, 2016

A Weekend In The Sun

It's the middle of April and I'm already sporting a tan (technically a partial sunburn on my back despite wearing tons of sunscreen). We spent most of our weekend outdoors, in the sun, working off that winter weight (for me) and the winter energy the kids had stored. Saturday morning the minis played outside, Hubs did yard work, and the minis and I ran a few errands at the mall. I had every intention of taking them to see The Jungle Book, but their melting attitudes at Target resulted in naps. I, on the other hand, took advantage of their unexpected nap time and took myself on a long walk around the trail at Raccoon River Park. It was the perfect escape for the afternoon.

My three mile loop around the lake and next to the river was gorgeous!

There were quite a few geese nests near the river.

Saturday night we celebrated my aunt's birthday with family, drinks on the patio, and a walk through Beaverdale. The real action of the night is when the middle mini called 911 as a "test." We weren't too thrilled.

The minis visited the library house near the end of my parents street. They brought books to put in the house.

Sunday morning we woke with the sun (not our doing, but completely the kids). We made the most of their early wakings and threw on clothes, packed a picnic, hopped in the car, hit up McDonald's drive thru for breakfast, and went up to Ledges State Park for an ALL day hiking adventure.

I love watching Elizabeth try her hardest to keep up. She's been doing great on our hikes lately and can now hike 5+ miles in a day. We're trying to get them conditioned for our summer vacation to the Smokey Mountains this summer.

Yes, I got this close to a snake. Closer actually since I nearly stepped on it! The minis freaked out and I would have freaked out had I stepped on it!

We had the perfect spot for our picnic of turkey sandwiches, chips, carrots, and Gatorade.

After lunch we played in the stream. The minis wore their swimming suites in preparation for "swimming" in the stream.

Lil Miss E didn't like stepping on the rocks in the stream so she hitched a ride.

Searching for tadpoles.

For the first time ever, we completed the Lost Lake Trail at Ledges (after we had hiked the canyon trails). We had gorgeous views of the Des Moines River. The steep drop offs had me holding my breath, but the minis loved looking down at the river.

The minis wanted to pose for pictures. They completely nailed them.

We found the lost lake!

This made such a beautiful back drop for photos!

After our day of hiking, we were beat. Obviously the cat had a hard day of napping and wanted to cuddle.

I could get used to my tan skin and weekends spent outdoors. The only thing I struggle with in beautiful weather is that I tend to go, go, go instead of taking things slow....and it doesn't seem we'll be taking things slow at all in the next few weeks!